'Big Earl' prepares to head back to sea

Saturday

Big Earl has been undergoing repairs for the last couple of weeks at the Holden Beach Marina

BRUNSWICK COUNTY -- "Big Earl," the shrimping boat that beached on the Holden Beach strand last month, is preparing to head back out to sea.

For the last couple of weeks, Big Earl has been stationed at the Holden Beach Marina, getting some much-needed repairs.

Reese Atkins, Big Earl’s owner, said the boat had to have several holes patched, a new starter installed, wooden posts replaced, engine repairs and a paint job. Yet he believes the boat will be ready to shrimp by the end of the month.

“We are almost completed with repairs, I’m thinking the repairs will be done by this weekend,” Atkins said.

Atkins said the repairs have been “astronomical,” but said boats are “always expensive.”

In mid-May, longtime shrimp boat captain Virgil Coleman, a Calabash resident, fought to keep Big Earl out to sea after the shrimping nets became tangled in the propeller. Though he was able to untangle the nets, the vessel had come too close to shore and waves slammed the side of the boat, pushing it further and further in until it beached on the strand.

Though at first the beached boat simply drew curious onlookers, it quickly spawned a massive community effort to save Big Earl and get the boat back out to sea. It took a week, but through digging a trench with a backhoe and pushing and pulling, Big Earl made it off the strand and back out to sea.

A tugboat drug Big Earl, which was full of holes, to the Holden Beach Marina, where it has been ever since.

Atkins only bought Big Earl in April for $30,000. It was his first shrimping boat.

Atkins said boats beaching is “something that happens,” but not too often. As he prepares to send Big Earl back out to sea, Atkins said he plans to try and find a new dock in Holden Beach for Big Earl and hopes to start shrimping again soon.

“I’m just hoping everything will be fine and we catch shrimp,” he said.

Reporter Makenzie Holland can be reached at 910-343-2371 or Makenzie.Holland@StarNewsOnline.com.

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